It is known that modern wireless communication systems, such as digital cellular systems, including Global System for Mobile Communication (hereinafter "GSM"), utilize mobility management and call processing procedures.
It is also known that radio frequencies are a scarce resource for radio communication, and new methods to improve the efficiency of its use are constantly sought. A typical wireless system keeps track of the location of a mobile by creating different geographical areas called "location areas". The term "location area" is hereinafter alternately referred to as "LA." A mobile that moves between two location areas sends a message called a "location update" to inform the system of its new location.
When a mobile enters a new location area, it performs a location update procedure, that is, it informs the wireless communication system's switching infrastructure of its new LA. This procedure is referred to as a SWITCH LOCATION UPDATE (hereinafter "SLU").
A typical location area will consist of one or more cells, each cell comprising the coverage area of its corresponding serving cell site. Using existing technology, when a mobile is paged, all cells in the current LA are paged, even though the mobile is just in one cell, thus resulting in significant RF bandwidth being wasted. Decreasing the LA geographical sizes will not improve the problem, since now the mobile has to register more often thus incurring both an RF utilization increase as well as an additional overhead on the signaling required in the infrastructure.
As a result, there is a need for a new location update procedure for mobiles in wireless communication systems.